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Al Foxx, Inspirational Speaker and Comic

Al Foxx is a powerful, courageous and honest author who takes you through an incredible and inspiring journey of self-discovery and leaves you with a feeling of gratitude and self-awareness. His book, “Achieving No Limits” is insightful, educational and a must read!” Sherin Sherkat, Psy.D. (Parent Strategist) Founder of Create Happy Kids: CreateHappyKids.com

Enjoy a 1 minute clip or a 10 minute summary presentation, taken from Al’s Embracing Change talk given before a live audience of public and private agencies, military personnel, and professional staff.

Success requires a steady focus on the positive.

Read or hear what others say. See also his blog for his various view points

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Al’s Most Recent Blog Post

How to End Your Addiction to Negative Thoughts

“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness” – Chinese Proverb

Did you ever think that negative thoughts could be an addictive behavior? Interestingly enough, they are!

Everyone’s life is filled with negatives and positives. We deal with them every day. The best way I have found to deal with negatives is to convert them to positives. In other words, take the glass half empty and see it as half full. Some people have this tendency from birth, but for some it has to be cultivated.

Practicing positive thinking is easy for some, but it’s difficult for someone with chronic negative thoughts, someone close to losing hope. Sometimes, life is filled with so many challenges that we feel hopeless, and negativity rules…For at least 10 years after my motorcycle crash, negativity was fully in charge of my life.

Our mind is like a recordingwhich repeats the events of our past. Positive thinking does not work for some because our recordings (our minds) keep repeating our failures. If we’re unskilled at something, and we want to improve, we may not be able to improve until we erase those recordings. We have to make up our minds to believe we can succeed, (for example, Edit your recording with new info – out with the old, in with the new) in order for your positive thinking to work.

Where do negative thoughts come from?

Before we can tackle a problem we must know its roots, where does negative thinking come from? The list of places to be influenced with negative thoughts can start with the media, and include your workplace, your family, your significant-other, your government, your religion, any social institution and yourself. We each have unique experiences in these categories. For me, my family and my faith have always been a positive influence. My most negative influence has been myself.

The effect of negative thoughts…

Having negative thoughts plays out like a movie that can only bring you pain, something that I have experienced many times throughout my life. Negative thoughts drain us of energy and keep us from being in the present moment. The more we give in to our negative thoughts, the stronger they become. I like the imagery of a small ball rolling along the ground, and as it rolls, it becomes larger and faster.

That’s what one small negative thought can turn into: a huge, speeding ball of ugliness. On the contrary, a small positive thought can have the same effect blossoming into a beautiful outcome.

Have you ever thought about the power of your thoughts? One thing I’ve learned since my injury is this: not only are negative thoughts destructive, they’re also addictive. Luckily the addiction to negative thinking can be treated like any other addiction.

Chasing away negativity…

To chase away the dark clouds of negativity, to turn my negative thoughts into positive ones, to change limits to possibilities, I have pinpointed 10 ideas that have worked for me:

Commit yourself to positive goals.

Say only positive things.

Be patient with yourself.

Hang out with positive people.

Forgive yourself when you backslide.

Eat healthy meals.

Get physical exercise regularly.

Keep track of your progress.

Trust the God of your understanding.

Remember that Winners Don’t Quit!

In my next article, I’ll talk more about changing our limitations to possibilities…

"Great job in speaker selection. Al's message was delivered effectively and humorously. Please continue to focus in on the real diversity issues. Less fluff and more events like this.

See other comments made by attenders of the Al Foxx diversity training at John Deere

John Deere Credit Dept

The conference planners and I greatly appreciate your contribution to the success of the conference, and we look forward to partnering with you in the future to improve the health care quality of those we serve.